Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift sang about the joy and pain of adolescence on her way to becoming an international pop phenomenon. Her crossover success from country music darling to pop culture superstar happened seemi...
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Taylor Swift and Kanye West publicly ended a five-year feud in New York City on Tuesday night (17Feb15) by dining out together. The couple fell out when West invaded the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009 to protest Swift's Best Female Video win over his friend Beyonce.
He later apologised for stealing the spotlight from the Love Story singer, while she was accepting her first VMA, but the two hitmakers have never been close - until now.
Rapper Kanye recently revealed he and Swift were planning to work together after they posed for photos together at the Grammy Awards earlier this month (Feb15), but when she was a no-show at his Adidas fashion event during New York Fashion Week last Thursday (12Feb15), pop culture experts suggested the pair still weren't friends.
However, it appeared all was forgiven on Tuesday night as Swift joined West for a meal at The Spotted Pig Restaurant in New York City.

Pop star Taylor Swift poked fun at her penchant for dancing during awards shows and sitting courtside at New York Knicks basketball games by taking part in a comedy sketch with funnyman Jimmy Fallon during an appearance on America's The Tonight Show on Tuesday (17Feb15). In the segment, titled NYC Fan Dance Cam, the pals pretended to attend a variety of Big Apple sports events and throw their popcorn in excitement as they were 'caught' on camera, before busting out their best silly dance moves, which were broadcast on a fake Jumbotron.

Taylor Swift and Sir Paul McCartney formed an unlikely duo on Sunday (15Feb15) as they jammed together at the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Show afterparty in New York City. The star-studded comedy show featured former SNL regulars Dan Aykroyd, Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey and Will Ferrell performing in sketches alongside the likes of Justin Timberlake, Tom Hanks, Ed Norton, Jim Carrey, Emma Stone, Chris Rock, Melissa McCarthy, Alec Baldwin, Bradley Cooper, Kerry Washington, Swift and Betty White, with music provided by McCartney, Paul Simon, Miley Cyrus and Kanye West.
The whole group continued the celebrations after the U.S. broadcast of the three-and-a-half hour show on Sunday by heading to the Plaza Hotel to party.
Fallon took charge of the bash and kicked off the afterparty with Aykroyd reprising his Blues Brothers character with the funnyman, while McCartney and Swift sang and played guitar. The musicians then took centre stage for a cover of Swift's pop hit Shake It Off, before performing a rendition of the Beatles' I Saw Her Standing There.
Fallon also recruited Michael Bolton, Cyrus and Ariana Grande for subsequent sets, with the Problem hitmaker teaming up with Blondie rocker Debbie Harry to sing back up for The Tonight Show host.
However, the biggest surprise came at the end of the night, when Prince made an unannounced appearance at the party, hitting the stage with comedienne and superfan Maya Rudolph, who had shown off her impression of Beyonce during the SNL 40 show.
Ironically, Beyonce herself was in attendance at the afterparty, alongside her husband Jay Z and actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

Taylor Swift is set for a trip down the aisle after a childhood friend asked the singer to be her maid of honour. The Love Story star's longtime pal Britany Maack wrote Swift a heartfelt letter in which she gushed about their friendship and invited her to take a starring role at her upcoming wedding.
The letter, which Swift published on her Twitter.com page, reads, "Taylor, You are more than a friend, you are more than a best friend. You are my sister. I cannot imagine having any one else by my side on my wedding day... Will you be my maid of honour?"
Swift responded by tweeting, "Yeah I will."

Justin Timberlake teamed up with comedy pal Jimmy Fallon to launch the star-studded Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary special on U.S. TV on Sunday (15Feb15). Former SNL regular Dan Aykroyd urged viewers to "stay tuned" for the three-and-a-half hour show during the red carpet pre-show, insisting, "You're never gonna see TV like this again", and he wasn't wrong.
Timberlake kicked off the proceedings by interrupting his pal Fallon's opening song-and-dance number to join him for a rap number, referencing some of the show's most famous catchphrases and skits.
The two pals closed their i with a song-and-dance number, in which they named SNL's most famous comedians.
Sir Paul McCartney and Paul Simon then teamed up during a second monologue, during which Steve Martin fought to convince the starry audience that he was the best host - over Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin, Melissa McCarthy, Chris Rock and Miley Cyrus.
In among the medley of historical skits, dotted throughout the special, there were also updates of classic sketches, including a celebrity Jeopardy gameshow, featuring Jim Carrey as Matthew McConaughey, an updated Wayne's World, and spoof soap The Californians with Bradley Cooper as a pool boy, Kerry Washington as a doctor and Taylor Swift as a hippie actress, which ended with Cooper smooching Betty White.
Other highlights included Keith Richards introducing McCartney's rendition of Maybe I'm Amazed, Edward Norton, Melissa McCarthy and Emma Stone impersonating their favourite SNL characters, and Miley Cyrus covering Simon's 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.
The oddest moment came when rapper Kanye West performed his hit Jesus Walks while lying on the floor, beneath an illuminated white sheet. West eventually stood and sang his new song Only One.
Star guests also included Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Jerry Seinfeld, James Franco and Michael Douglas and former SNL regulars Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Chevy Chase, Will Ferrell and Bill Murray.
The marathon special ended with a performance from Paul Simon, but there was no 'N Sync reunion, as had been rumoured earlier in the day.

Boy band 'N Sync have reunited for U.S. comedy show Saturday Night Live's 40th Anniversary special. Justin Timberlake, who has become one of the sketch show's most frequent guest hosts in recent years, will return to the SNL world with his former bandmates when the special airs on Sunday night (15Feb15).
The group made the announcement via Twitter.com on Saturday (14Feb15), telling fans, "Together again... Gee, it's good to be together again" #SNL40."
However, bandmember Lance Bass took to Twitter.com hours before the live event to clarify they will not be taking the stage for the milestone telecast.
He wrote, "He wrote, "For the record , we are not performing or doing a skit tonight on SNL. But look hard for us in he audience! Fun night ahead!"
'N Sync's one-time chart rivals the Backstreet Boys will also be present for the show, alongside former SNL regulars Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey, Chris Rock and Will Ferrell and special guests like Paul McCartney, Jack Nicholson, Kanye West, Paul Simon, Taylor Swift and Jim Carrey.

Taylor Swift has a new best friend in model pal Lily Aldridge's two-year-old daughter. Little Dixie Pearl adores the Love Story singer and always wants to hang out with Auntie Taylor.
The 29-year-old model tells People.com, "Taylor and Dixie are best friends! She asks to go to Taylor’s house every day and loves to go upstairs and play with her cats."
Aldridge, who is married to Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followill, is another devotee of Swift's celebrity fan club, adding, "She’s just the sweetest person. We have dance parties in our kitchen. We dance to everything."

Pop star Lily Allen has been targeted with a series of abusive cell phone messages after a hacker broke into her pal Taylor Swift's account on Twitter.com. The Smile hitmaker received text messages claiming to be from a member of the ISIS terror network and threatening to rape and kill her.
She fears her phone number was obtained after Swift's Twitter account was hacked in January (15).
Allen posted an image of the texts to her Instagram.com account on Friday (13Feb15), writing, "Cool i (got a) message from some kid that got my number from hacking Taylor Swifts Twitter (sic)."
The message read, "alright u dont understand im actually a terrorist from isis u dumb b**ch", before going on to threaten to rape and kill the singer.
It is not known if Allen plans to take action over the security breach.

Taylor Swift reportedly stood Kanye West up at his Adidas collection launch on Thursday (12Feb15) after telling the rapper she'd make it to his big New York Fashion Week show. West, who famously upset Swift by protesting against her Best Female Video win over pal Beyonce at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, was overheard telling Vogue magazine's Andre Leon Talley he was expecting the Love Story singer to be his special guest.
The rapper reportedly told the fashion guru, "She was supposed to be here today, so I don't know what happened."
It appears Swift was too busy launching her new video, Style, to attend the fashion bash, where Beyonce and Jay Z rubbed shoulders with Justin Bieber, Sean 'Diddy' Combs, Rihanna and members of Kanye's Kardashian family.
A source tells E! News, "Taylor wanted to attend but had a scheduled photo shoot that day that she could not move."
Kanye's daughter North West also missed dad's big fashion show as she had to be removed from the event by her mother Kim Kardashian after she threw a tantrum.
The troubled tot's dad has since explained his daughter's meltdown moments before the runway show started was caused by the tense atmosphere at the event.
West tells i-D, "Maybe she was just scared for her daddy. She just wanted people to stop being mean to her daddy. Because she knows that her daddy loves the world and just wants to make it a more beautiful place."

"I've met a lot of really great girls through Taylor. She's incredible at connecting people who might not normally meet. We're all in different jobs, but we've become strong friends who are there for each other - a sisterhood of girls, a support team. We're also just normal 20-something girls, and I think you have to have people that you can be that with... Real friends are hard to find." Model Karlie Kloss on best pal Taylor Swift.

Released her first pop album, 1989, named after the year of her birth; featured hit singles "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space"

Released second album Fearless; album debuted at No. 1 and was year's highest debut of any country artist

Headlined first tour in U.S. and Canada

Released self-titled debut album, featuring single "Tim McGraw"; wrote or co-wrote all songs on album

Hosted and performed as musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" (NBC)

Made TV acting debut playing a 16-year-old on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (CBS)

Voiced character of Audrey in animated feature "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax"

Wrote or co-wrote all 16 tracks for fourth album Red, including hit singles "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and "I Knew You Were Trouble"

Summary

Taylor Swift sang about the joy and pain of adolescence on her way to becoming an international pop phenomenon. Her crossover success from country music darling to pop culture superstar happened seemingly happened overnight, yet Swift's prodigious natural talent, honest songwriting and cheerfully free spirit gave her staying power on the charts. Her sophomore album <i>Fearless</i> (2009) churned out one hit song after another, reached multi-platinum status, and won her numerous awards, including Country Music Association (CMA) Entertainer of the Year, which, as the title's youngest recipient, made CMA history. Far from a one-note, Swift displayed her acting skills as well in projects as varied as an episode of the drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (CBS, 2000- ) and as Taylor Lautner's love interest in the big screen romantic comedy, "Valentine's Day" (2010). A breath of fresh air amongst a crowd of party-hopping starlets, Swift's fairy tale life took a surreal turn at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards after rapper Kanye West interrupted her acceptance speech. However uncomfortable the moment may have been for Swift, everyone in the country knew who she was the next morning, and it appeared the sky was the limit for multi-talented singer-actress who had captured America's hearts. A slow but steady turn away from Nashville country into pure pop music was completed with her fifth album, <i>1989</i>, a well-crafted collection of largely electronic pop songs that effortlessly moved her into the heart of the pop mainstream.

Education

Name

Hendersonville High School

Aaron Academy

Notes

During the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, singer/rapper Kanye West came on stage and took the microphone from Swift during her acceptance speech for winning Best Female Video for "You Belong with Me," saying that Beyoncé's video for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)," nominated for the same award, was "one of the best videos of all time." A stunned and reportedly upset Swift was led off the stage. Beyoncé later won the award for Best Video of the Year for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)," and she called Swift up on stage so that she could finish her acceptance speech.

In 2010, Swift was named Entertainment Weekly's Entertainer of the Year.

Swift on 2013 Golden Globe hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler: "You know, Katie Couric is one of my favorite people because she said to me she had heard a quote that she loved that said, 'There's a special place in hell for women who don't help other women.'" – quoted in Vanity Fair, April 2013

On a 2014 episode of "Saturday Night Live," a parody commercial advertised "Swiftamine," a drug for the sudden dizziness and vertigo that comes when people suddenly realize they love Taylor Swift's music.